Thursday, 19 August 1999

Clive Potter: Poet, Aug 19, 1999

It is nothing short of courageous to write, direct, design
and perform one's first play. "Courageous" is here intended in the
inverted Sir Humphrey Appleby sense.

Visual artist, Anthony Breslin, has written a script that
deals with grief, death, creative failure, sexual 'coming out' and suicide: all
very dense and emotive issues.

Clive Potter: Poet is about a young man, who is played, for
some reason, by a young woman (Ruth Blakely). Clive's father has suicided, his
publisher, (Don Bridges) ignores his poetry and he is bemused and confused by
his emerging sexual preference.

At two and a half hours, the play is about an hour too long.
It needs some ruthless editing and some dramaturgical advice. There are,
however, some effective and affecting moments such as Clive's coming out phone
call to his mother.

Much of the rest of the play comprises either overly long
monologues from Clive, intermittently comic sketches with broad clown
characters, or awkwardly emotional dialogues between mum (Roberta Connelly) and
Clive or Clive and his elusive lover, Night (Anthony Breslin). There is also a
mime artist on stage (Paul Roberts OK) consistently, evidently forcing Clive's
fate.

The monologues are repetitive, dialogues with mum are
written in poor rhyme and the scenes with Night are riddled with pedestrian
philosophy.

These styles do not form a cohesive whole in this play that
takes far too long to get to its point.It lacks dramatic tension or dramatic action.

After 90 minutes, when Clive finally confronts his smarmy
boss (Alan King) and the publisher, the narrative looks more promising but this
is followed by a drawn out suicide attempt which dissipates the energy.

The actors work hard in a play which struggles to find its
style. Blakely performs quite well with such weighty text and Bridges, King and
Mark Wilson provide sound comic relief. Particularly good was Connelly as
mother.

Breslin's dartboard/chessboard design is very clever and
elaborate but does not serve the text. It is not aided by a clumsy lighting
design (Susanne Kean).

This hero's journey could do with a clearer map. It is very
difficult to sit through, especially in a very under-heated Theatreworks.